Apparatus for internally spraying pipes



July 30, 1957 R. B. JEWELL 5 APPARATUS FOR INTERNALLY SPRAYING PIPES Filed Jan. 21, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet l ll/ll 8 IZVENTOR. BY /,4 nwv United States Patent 2,800,875 APPARATUS FOR INTERNALLY SPRAYING PIPES Robert B. Jewell, Shreveport, La., assignor to Silas Mason Company, New York, N. Y., a corporation of Delaware Application January 21, 1955, Serial No. 483,222

1 Claim. (Cl. 118-306) The object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for internally spraying pipes with a coating material, and which will be simple and eflective in construction, and constitute an improvement over such coating machines as subject to patent to Hannon, Pat. No. 1,913,757.

A characteristic of the construction is that a spray tube, with its spray nozzle, is moved along a V-shaped guideway of a table and into and out of the pipe to be internally coated, the spray action occurring during the return movement of the spray tube, and the actuation being effected by an endless chain having a top length directed by the walls of a channel in the table below the guideway, the chain having a link connection with a feed head for the spray tube. The spray tube is centered in the pipe by a spring-loaded roller-carrying toggle guide assembly.

The invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a view in elevation, partly broken away, showing an embodiment of the apparatus.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary section taken forwardly of the drive for the chain shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a view in elevation of the structure shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary vertical section on the line 44, Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is a detail view showing the nozzle-carrying end of a spray tube and the spring loaded roller-carrying toggle guide.

Fig. 6 is a view in sectional elevation showing one form of the feed head for the spray tube.

Fig. 7 is a vertical section on the line 7-7, Fig. 5.

Referring to Fig. 1 of the drawing, I have shown at 1 a vertically adjustable standard or leg for a table 2 which will support the pipe 3 to be coated, these elements being shown fragmentarily and employed merely to show the relative positions of the pipe and the spray tube. The spray tube 14X is mounted for forward and backward movement. To that end suitable adjustable standard 5 support a table which may be made up of the angle bars 6, Fig. 4, and the spaced wood pieces 7, the latter being formed with inwardly directed slant sides to form a V- shaped guide for the spray tube 14X. The angle bars 6 are provided with a wood spacer 8 and plates 9 with a lowermost U-shaped metal connector 10 may complete the assembly the elements 6, 9 and 10 being secured together as by welding.

An endless chain 11 lies in a channel immediately above the wood spacer 8 and below the V-shaped spray tube guide provided by the members 7. The return length of the chain may be exposed and may run above a bottom plate 12 supported from the table assembly by straps 13; or the chain, in its return length, may be completely shielded by substituting plates 9 for the straps 13. In Fig. 1 the straps are shown whereas in Fig. 4 it may be considered that the straps are substituted by a plurality of abutting plates 9.

The forward end of the spray tube carries a spray nozzle 14 of any desired design, and the rear end of the spray tube carries a feed head 15. An inlet 16 to which a flexible hose 17 may be attached communicates with ducts leading to a tube within the spraytube, and which is indicated at 18, Fig. 6, for supplying the coating fluid to the nozzle 14. An inlet member 19, which is connected to a flexible hose 20 communicates with the ducts for admitting air under pressure to the spray tube exteriorly of coating tube 18 and leading to the nozzle14.

The chain 11 is connected by a link connector 21'to the feed head, as shown in Fig. ,6.

The spray tube is centered in the pipe to be treated by spring loaded roller-carrying toggles, there being two sets of three each. The toggles in one set are pivoted to a collar 22 rotatable on the spray tube and to a movable collar 23. The jointure of the legs of each toggle carries a roller 24. The second set of toggles has its legs pivoted to a collar 25 rotatable on spray tube 14X, and its other legs pivoted to a movable collar 23X on the spray tube. A coiled spring 26 tends to move collars 23 and 23X in opposite directions, and thus there is action on the sets of toggles to center the spray tube 14X.

At the rear end of the apparatus a chain runs over a sprocket 28 and at the front end of the machine the chain runs over a sprocket 29. Sprocket 29 is on a shaft 30 held in bearing members 31, Fig 2 and the shaft 30 carries a plurality of pulleys of graduated size, 32, 33, 34 and 35, any one of which may be connected by the belt 36X to a motor driven pulley 37X, Fig. l. Bearing members 31 are suspended by bolts 36 and nuts 37.

In Fig. 3 it may be considered that instead of separate coating liquid and air inlets to the spray tube 14, a single inlet 38 with its hose 39 is employed for the use of a coating material which may be employed under direct air pressure.

In the operation of the apparatus the pipe to be coated is laid on table 2 and motor drive pulley 37X thrown into action to advance the spray tube to the opposite end of the pipe. Thereupon the coating fluid and the air are turned on (and this may be done automatically by means not shown) and the action of the motor is reversed so that the spray tube is withdrawn and in its withdrawal the pipe is internally coated.

At the end of the withdrawal movement of the spray tube the air and coating fluid is shut off (and this may be done automatically by means not shown), and the coated pipe removed from its table.

It will be understood that various modifications may be made in the form and arrangement of the elements constituting the embodiment illustrated in the drawings without departure from the spirit of the invention. For example, the interior of the spray pipe may be provided with a longitudinally movable rod having a nozzle shut-01f at its end within the nozzle and means for moving the rod inwardly when the spray tube is wholly retracted from the pipe which has undergone internal coating, as in the structure of the Hannon patent. Instead of the air pressure means for moving the rod inwardly to close the nozzle, the rod may have an exterior finger which will contact with an abutment at the final outward movement of the spray pipe.

It has been stated that the collars 22 and 23 are rotatable on the spray tube 14X. They are held against endwise movement by fixed collars (not shown). The spray tube thus can be moved in rotational directions relatively to the assembly of collars which surround it and which carry the toggles, and such arrangement permits bodily rotation of the pipe being internally coated, and relatively to the spray tube (the toggle guards rotating with the pipe) in the case of large diameter pipe and where such method is desirable.

Having described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by issue of Letters Patent is as follows:

Apparatus for internally spraying pipes, consisting of a table supported lay-standards, the table at its top carryinga longitudinally extending gui deway providinga guide channel for reception of a spray tube, said guideway con sisting of opposed members having inwardly slanted sides providing a V-shaped channel, angle bars supporting said guideway members, spacing means for said channel bars and providing at the top of said spacing means a guide channel for the upper length of an endless chain, hangers extending downwardly from the angle bars, a spray tube supported by the walls of the guide channel, an endless chain having an upper length in its said guide channel,

power means for reversely moving the chain, a connection between the cha in and the spray tube, and a longitudinally I extending support for the bottom length of the chain and carried by said hangers.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,692,028 Elliott Nov. 20, 1928 1,840,027 Fetter Jan. 5, 1932 2,388,517 Bailey et al. Nov. 6, 1945 2,461,517 Carnevale Feb. 15, 1949 2,520,397 Green Aug. 29, 1950 2,551,722 Bowen May 8, 1951 2,634,703 Johns Apr. 14, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 112,653 Australia Mar. 13, 1941 

